Of Shiv Sena, Mumbai & Indian Politics
Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Mumbai and Bal Thackeray’s comment about him stirred many people to write letters to the editors about Shiv Sena’s role in Mumbai and to a larger extent Maharashtra. Most were critical of the roles played by the various Sena elements. Some samples.
Old age takes man to hate speech. And that is what one could find with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray - said one letter.
From so many years people have seen Shiv Sena and its Sainiks opposing different political matters in one way only.i.e,they call either for Bandh affecting trade and leading to loss of crores of rupees - said another letter. It continued…They can even stop releasing the movies of some stars who get involved in verbal controversy. But isn’t it amazing that Sena and its Sainiks are not opposing or uttering a word against government that is not taking any action against Kasab responsible for deadly crime in Mumbai.
Another letter said: It has really startled me that the Shiv Sena has claimed violation of their democratic rights when they were not allowed to display the black flags.Have they ever bothered for democratic rights of others when at the behest of muscle power they never even allowed to any citizen to give his views which do not suit their interests.
Coming in partial defense if Shiv Sena, one writer opined:
It is very sad to see that today when we as a nation are dreaming of becoming the number one economy in the world, our politicians are busy playing the dirty game of dividing the citizens of India on the basis of region and language. If Shiv Sena and MNS are culprits of igniting the fire of region based politics in Mumbai, then Congress as a ruling party both in Centre and the state in no less responsible in being a mock spectator of this havoc being created by these parties.
What do you think?